Portrait miniature

• 1. Introduction

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  Portrait miniatures were small enough to slip inside a locket, press against your heart, or tuck beneath a watch cover. At their smallest, they measured just 40 mm by 30 mm. Yet within that thumbnail of painted surface, an entire person had to live.

  From the courts of Henry VIII to the soldiers of British Colonial India, these tiny paintings carried enormous weight. They crossed oceans in the hands of brides, soldiers, and diplomats. They hid inside jewelled cases and rested against skin. When fire consumed a collection at White's Chocolate and Coffee House on the 28th of April 1733, the ashes were sifted by hand to recover the gold from the incinerated mountings.

  How did painting on a playing card become a language spoken by kings and grieving mothers alike? And what happened when photography finally offered a faster, cheaper answer to the same human need?

• 2. From Manuscript to Miniature

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  Jean Fouquet painted a self-portrait miniature in 1450, and that fact places him at the very origin of the form. He was a manuscript illuminator first, and the portrait miniature grew directly out of that tradition once woodblock and copperplate printing had taken over book illustration and left the manuscript painters with nowhere else to go.

  Simon Bening was another of these early illuminators who carried the skills forward. His daughter Levina Teerlinc moved to England and spent her career painting portrait miniatures there. She preceded Hans Holbein the Younger at the English court, and Holbein also painted some miniatures. Lucas Horenbout, a Netherlandish painter, worked alongside Holbein at the court of Henry VIII.

  France built its own tradition through the Clouet family. Jean Clouet, who died around 1540, and his son François Clouet, who lived from around 1510 to 1572, both worked in portraiture, though little of their miniature work survives. Seven portraits in the Manuscript of the Gallic War, held at the Bibliotheque Nationale, are attributed to Jean Clouet. A work in the Morgan Library and Museum representing the Marechal de Brissac is also assigned to him.

  France's miniature tradition eventually tended toward larger images, roughly the size of a modern paperback book. These might be finished drawings with some colour added, rather than fully painted miniatures. The artist François Clouet and his followers worked in this expanded format, though it pushed the boundaries of what the word "miniature" would usually mean.

• 3. The English Masters

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  Nicholas Hilliard, born around 1537 and died in 1619, was the first famous native English portrait miniaturist. His colours were opaque and he used gold to heighten the effect. He often added a Latin motto alongside his signature. His technique was conservative in style but highly sensitive to the character of the person sitting for him.

  Hilliard worked for a period in France and was probably the painter referred to in 1577 as Nicholas Belliart. His son Lawrence Hilliard, who died in 1640, carried on the work with a bolder technique and richer colour. Around 1600, Nicholas Hilliard set down his approach in a treatise known as the Art of Limming. The word "limning" was the common name for the technique; the phrase "painting in little" was another.

  Isaac Oliver, born around 1560 and died in 1617, was Hilliard's pupil, and his son Peter Oliver, born in 1594 and died in 1647, was Isaac's pupil. The two men were the first in England to give genuine roundness and form to the faces they painted. Peter initially worked with tiny coloured dots, giving the portraits a three-dimensional quality. He then loosened the technique, using softer and broader brushstrokes to model the faces. Their largest miniatures measured as much as 10 by 9 inches, and they were commissioned by Charles I to copy his famous paintings by the old masters at a small scale.

  Samuel Cooper, born in 1609 and died in 1672, is considered the greatest English portrait miniaturist. He was a nephew and student of John Hoskins the Elder. Cooper spent much of his time in Paris and the Netherlands. He painted on card, chicken skin, vellum, and on two occasions on thin pieces of mutton bone. His portraits of figures from the Puritan epoch were praised for their truth to life. John Hoskins's son, also named John Hoskins, left behind a signed miniature of James FitzJames dated 1700, held at the Pierpont Morgan collection.

• 4. The High Period

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  Richard Cosway, born in 1742 and died in 1821, was the most celebrated English miniaturist of the 18th century. He worked mainly on ivory, though occasionally on paper or vellum, and produced pencil drawings he called "stayned drawings", lightly tinting the faces and hands. His finest miniatures are signed on the back; there is just one genuine signed on the face. His best work was done around 1799.

  George Engleheart, born in 1750 and died in 1829, painted 4,900 miniatures across his career. Andrew Plimer, born in 1763 and died in 1837, was a pupil of Cosway, and he and his brother Nathaniel Plimer produced portraits notable for the brightness of their eyes and the wiriness of their hair. John Smart, born in 1741 and died in 1811, was described by contemporaries for his refinement, power and delicacy, and his preference for a brown background.

  Henry Bone, born in 1755 and died in 1839, was the outstanding English enamel painter of the period. He was the only enamel painter to achieve membership in the Royal Academy, and was appointed enameller to three successive monarchs: George III, George IV, and William IV. He expanded the scale of what enamel miniature could depict, working on historical portraits, religious and mythological subjects, and reproductions of old masters.

  In Denmark, Cornelius Hoyer was appointed Miniature Painter to the Danish Court in 1769. His most widely remembered work is a portrait of Ludwig van Beethoven painted in 1802, of which Beethoven was particularly fond, possibly because it presented him more handsomely than most other portraits. Christian Horneman succeeded Hoyer as Denmark's leading portrait miniaturist.

• 5. Ivory, Enamel, and Hidden Faces

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  Watercolour on ivory became the standard medium during the 18th century. The use of ivory was first adopted around 1700, during the latter part of the reign of William III. Ivory had become relatively cheap by then, and watercolour sat on the surface in a way that allowed a particular luminosity.

  Enamel on copper had an older history. The technique of painting portrait miniatures in enamel on copper was created in Italy during the 16th century, and there is debate about whether it should be attributed to Italian or Dutch artists. Jean Petitot, born in 1607 and died in 1691, was the greatest enamel worker of the 17th century. He painted his finest portraits in Paris for King Louis XIV, and his son continued in the same profession.

  Mica, a thin transparent mineral known at the time as talc, opened an unexpected technical possibility. Artists painted on a piece of mica and placed it over the portrait miniature, allowing the holder to dress up or disguise the subject beneath. Commissioned costume overlays let a patron conceal the identity of the person depicted. If a subject was an unpopular ruler, being found carrying the picture could bring harm.

  The Department of Costumes and Textiles at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art discovered a series of portrait miniatures from England dating from the 1650s. They appear to show the same woman in various costumes, but the woman bears a striking resemblance to Charles I, who was executed in 1649. His followers found subtle ways to honour the king, and these miniatures appear to be one of them.

• 6. Across Oceans and Courts

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  Portrait miniatures entered the Spanish court in the late 15th century through a specific political negotiation. The alliance between Henry VII of England and Ferdinand II of Aragon, celebrating the match between their heirs Catherine and Arthur, was sealed by the Treaty of Medina del Campo in 1489. The exchange of gifts included jewels and portrait miniatures of the young couple.

  Francisco Goya, born in 1746 and died in 1828, painted portrait miniatures for mourning and weddings beginning in 1806. His main medium was oil, but he also worked in pencil. Between 1824 and 1825, Goya recorded over 40 miniature commissions on ivory. Where most artists dotted colour onto the ivory surface, Goya shaped lines using water, and he claimed this technique was unlike the accidental ink wash method developed in England by Alexander Cozens around 1800.

  John Smart, the same artist celebrated in 18th-century England, spent the years 1785 to 1795 working in Madras, where he was highly sought after by British soldiers. Young men sent to Colonial India had their portraits commissioned on arrival to send home to mothers, sisters, and spouses. The ivory miniatures were taxed more heavily during shipment because of the higher risk of damage. Scholars have used these commissions as evidence of the social pressures and cultural history of the British presence in India.

  In Sweden, Anton Ulrik Berndes produced around 600 portrait miniatures, taking commissions from members of the lower bourgeoisie to the royal court. In Ireland, Gustavus Hamilton, born in 1739 and died on the 16th of December 1775, built an extensive practice in Dublin before his death at age 36. He was buried on the 18th of December at St. Werburgh's Church.

• 7. Women, Mourning, and America

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  Mary Roberts, who died in 1761, was the earliest recorded female miniaturist working in the American colonies. In the late 18th century, Mary Way and her sister Betsey created what they called "dressed miniatures", with fabric, ribbons, and lace physically affixed to the images.

  Mourning practices gave portrait miniatures a particular role in Colonial America. Before miniatures, families received tokens with inscriptions or images matching those in the coffin, creating a bond between the living and the departed. A shift during the 18th century moved the emphasis from mourning death toward celebrating life. When Hannah, a twelve-year-old girl, died from illness, her family commissioned a locket with a portrait showing her as she had looked before she became ill. The locket bore angel wings above her image and the words "NOT LOST" on the side.

  Amalia Kussner Coudert, born in 1863 in Terre Haute, Indiana, and died in 1932, painted portraits of New York socialites and European royalty on watercolour and ivory. Her subjects included Caroline Astor, King Edward VII, Czar Nicholas II, and Cecil Rhodes.

  Around 1900, a revival of miniature portraiture took hold in the United States. The American Society of Miniature Painters was founded in 1899, and artists such as Virginia Richmond Reynolds, Lucy May Stanton, and Cornelia Ellis Hildebrandt built their reputations within it. Eda Nemoede Casterton was selected to show at the Paris Salon. The form continued into contemporary practice with artists such as Dina Brodsky.